(Credit:
Crave Asia)
The world watched in awe as China put on what some say was the best-ever Olympics opening ceremony ever. The proceedings culminated with the lighting of the Olympic torch by one of China's sporting greats, Li Ning, who was hanging from a wire high above the crowd. Who would have thought that at the same time, one of the stadium's projectors was displaying the famous Microsoft Blue Screen of Death?
Some eagle-eyed spectators caught it on camera, clearly showing the error message usually associated with serious software issues or hardware problems in a computer running Windows. Thankfully, this didn't mar the otherwise excellent show. Most people would have missed it with the explosion of sight and sound around them anyway.
Still, it acts as a reminder to future organizers of high-profile shows like this: writing your software in Linux or OS X could be a good option instead.
(Source: Crave Asia via Gizmodo)
Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.
Our review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard last Thursday lauded its lovely interface innovations but withheld judgment about the operating system's speed until we could put it through its paces.
Tests returned from CNET Labs on Saturday show that Leopard didn't perform noticeably faster than Mac OS 10.4.6 Tiger. (See the chart in CNET's review of Tiger.). Because Leopard's improved speeds of between 1 percent and 3 percent fall within the 5 percent margin of error, it's fair to call Leopard and Tiger even.
GarageBand wouldn't run the first time we opened it in Leopard.
Lab tests explored Leopard's boot time, multimedia multitasking, and handling of the Quake 3 game. Similarly, the 2005 release of Tiger did not demonstrate vast speed improvements over Panther, a previous version of Mac OS X.
Still, some users commenting on Leopard-related message boards and stories at CNET and elsewhere swore that they detected faster performance with Leopard.
Unfortunately, CNET Labs could not vouch for the performance of Adobe Systems' Photoshop CS3, which, for reasons not yet understood, wouldn't run on Leopard in our usual battery of automated tests. Don't jump to conclusions, however; the photo-editing application seemed to behave under normal conditions, and Adobe insists that Photoshop can run in Leopard.
However, full Leopard support for all versions of Adobe Creative Suite 3 won't become available until Adobe releases updates in three to four months. Among the applications needing updates are AfterEffects, Premiere, Soundbooth, and Acrobat Pro 8.1.2 (PDF). Sadly, Adobe fans cannot count on running earlier iterations of the Creative Suite or Macromedia Studio uneventfully within Leopard.
Although we find Leopard's interface relatively seamless, the same can't be said for everyone's experience getting started. Some people reported installation headaches, including the famed "blue screen of death," which historically has made so many love to hate the rival Microsoft Windows. Apple has acknowledged that issue as a glitch with third-party software.
Another application that won't run properly in Leopard yet is FileMaker Pro 9, due for an update next month. Some at CNET have found other applications, such as Groupcal and Parallels, failing unexpectedly in Leopard. And although only Safari was also running at the time, GarageBand wouldn't run in our first two attempts to open it in Leopard. A reboot seemed to do the trick.
Leopard also appeared to be converting some Mail settings from administrator to standard accounts; MacFixIt explains a solution. We're looking into these and other issues, and will continue to update our Leopard review as we learn more.
Our conclusion remains that you must have Leopard if you need to run Boot Camp, and you'll want it if you eagerly await Time Machine's elegant backup system. Developers will also like the full, native 64-bit support for both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs.
Yet the majority of obvious improvements are on Leopard's surface. That isn't necessarily a bad thing; interface tweaks like Cover Flow, Quick Look, Spaces and Stacks offer powerful, practical improvements that make it easier to multitask. The operating system overall is a treat to use, even if it's unlikely to deliver preternatural speed.
So unless $129 feels like a trifle to spend, holding off on this upgrade wouldn't hurt. Depending upon your software toolkit of choice, waiting for third-party applications to catch up to Leopard might even save some frustration.
(Credit:
Matt Asay)
I had a great dinner tonight with the Openbravo management team in Barcelona. As we walked up La Rambla from a decadent pre-dinner "meal" of lava-like hot chocolate, we headed into the parking garage to get our car.
The door to the parking payment machine was open as we got into the garage. The computer had malfunctioned and the parking attendant was rebooting it. I got there just in time to notice the operating system (used city-wide) that was causing this parking attendant grief:
Windows.
One can't even park anymore without getting the Blue Screen of Death.
Incidentally, the parking attendant couldn't figure out why I wanted to take a picture of the payment machine. For my part, I couldn't figure out why he wasn't running a real operating system. :-)
If you wouldn't be caught dead without your phone, the Ga coffin carpenters of Ghana have the perfect coffin for you.
(Credit:
eShopAfrica.com)
This Nokia phone coffin is just one of several custom-designed caskets from Accra, Ghana. And here's the best part: you can e-mail your own ideas to eShopAfrica to have your own design created.
If you'd rather opt for cremation, or if you're blessed with eternal life, you can still get in on these hand-crafted gems. The Ga carpenters also make custom chests, such as this mouse-themed container (complete with scroll wheel).
(Credit:
eShopAfrica.com)
Here are some particularly juicy picks for car and plane enthusiasts anticipating their own personal blue screen of deawth.
(Credit:
eShopAfrica.com)
(Credit:
eShopAfrica.com)
(Credit:
eShopAfrica.com)
For existing designs, prices range from $125 for a desktop chest to $1,000 for a six-foot chest. See eShopAfrica's coffin gallery here, and learn how they make them here.
What would your custom coffin be? Post the casket of your dreams in the TalkBack section below.
(Credit:
PersonalizationMall.com)
Most of us have, at one point or another, been confronted with the ominous blue screen of death, that dreaded block of text that lets you know your Windows PC has encountered a serious system error and--to put it scientifically--you're probably massively screwed. According to the rules of computing, the BSOD generally appears when you're composing some life-altering document--on deadline.
Instead of tossing your computer out the window or crumbling in a heap of despair, why not enjoy a good chuckle over your ill fortune? In the spirit of laughing in the face of life's travails, PersonalizationMall.com is selling sweatshirts, short-sleeve T-shirts and mouse pads that reprint the blue message screen in all its aggravating glory. The goods include a personalized message with the luckless computer user's first name (Have a nice day, Bob!), as if speaking directly to that person in a sneering act of fake friendliness.
In your face, BSOD.
(Via Chip Chick)
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